SALMA—Thanks mum! Can I ask another question?
BUSHRA—Go ahead.
SALMA—How can we communicate with God?
BUSHRA—The most obvious method of communication with God is through regular prayers. You should remember that you cannot cultivate a personal relationship with God unless you speak to Him and address Him with all sincerity and deep feelings. It is sincerity and your true feelings that are acceptable to God and not merely the words, which convey them. The best advice for children, in this matter, is that they should be informal about it.
They should talk to Him and behave towards God in the same manner as they address their loved ones or their intimate friends.
Did I tell you the story of the Prophet Moses, peace be upon him, and the shepherd?
SALMA—No. Please tell us.
BUSHRA—Once Moses, peace be upon him, was going on a journey. He saw a shepherd sitting by the roadside, picking lice from his clothes and killing them one by one. His clothes seemed to be infested with lice. As he was busy doing so, he was muttering something. Moses, peace be upon him, became inquisitive. He went near the shepherd in order to find out what he was saying. He found that the man was saying, ‘O my Lord! If ever you come to me, I will pick all the lice from your clothes, take out thorns from your feet and offer you milk from my sheep to drink.’
When Moses heard this, he could not contain his anger. He shouted out, ‘Who on earth are you to speak to God in such a way? Do you think God is like you, full of lice and filth? God is the Provider of everything. He is the Lord of the universe and Creator of all things. He is Self Sufficient. He does not stand in need of help from anyone, especially from such a lowly person as you are.’
But before he could continue, he heard an awe inspiring rebuke from God Almighty, expressing His deep displeasure at what he had done. God told him that He was deeply enjoying the simple innocent expressions of pure love from His servant when Moses interrupted.
Moses, peace be upon him, was overwhelmed by this rebuke from God. He fell to his knees beseeching forgiveness from Allah for being rude to one of His humble servants.
BUSHRA—The moral of the story is that you should treat God with extreme love, in your innocent way. If you do that, you will experience that God, in turn, will treat you with love as well. You should always be sincere and true to God as it is the truth that matters.
God communicates with His servants through dreams, visions and sometimes through verbal messages. Sometimes He sends angels to convey His message, but it should be remembered that we cannot see angels with our eyes.
JOHN—How can we be sure that the message is from God and is not our wishful thinking or an illusion?
BUSHRA—It is the contents of the message and the richness of the experience, which convinces the person, with whom God is communicating, that the message is from God and not his wishful thinking or an illusion. Sometimes God informs the person of a future event which comes to pass exactly as the message was conveyed to him. Moreover, there are many other ways of judging the authenticity of God’s communion with man, but I think this explanation is enough for today. Don’t you think so?
The children all agreed. They enjoyed the talk. They were now fully convinced that there is a Creator of this universe, who is the Best Designer of things. Everything that happens in this world is in the knowledge of God and under His command.
They also learnt that in order to get close to God they had to obey His commandments and cultivate a personal relationship with Him.
They thanked Salma’s mother for answering their questions. The rain had stopped so they went into the garden to play.
They sat down at the edge of the pond and marvelled at the beautiful colours of the goldfish and their swift movements in the water.
MARY—Another beautiful creature, which God has created. There must be a purpose of creating such tiny beautiful fish.
BARBARA—We will ask auntie the purpose of goldfish some other time.
JOHN—Auntie is very knowledgeable. She sincerely believes that God is alive and real and that He loves us and cares for us if we obey His commands. I wonder what is the source of her knowledge.
ALL—We will ask her next time.